Who locks their controls like this?

[A64Pilot]

15 hours ago, EricJ said:

Same here.   I've parked it for many days at a time outside at Rapid City (KRAP) where wind can be "significant".   I've come back to find chocks, cowl plugs, cowl plug flags, or other random bits of stuff blown away by the light ambient breezes of the northern central plains.   All I ever do is put the strap across the yokes to lock the ailerons and leave the springs to handle the rest of it and it seems to do just fine.

All that “stuff” In the Army was called “fly away gear” for some reason. We always stenciled the tail number on it as Crew Chiefs we’re known to make up shortages by swiping it.

After every significant wind event at Ft. Hood Tx. we would go to the downwind chain link fence and collect all of our fly away gear. Maybe it was called that because it regularly flew away?

The big storm we called the Mother’s day massacre, it wasn’t a tornado, it was a meso convective something, essentially the Thunderstorm from Hell. The majority of the Army’s Apaches were at Ft Hood, and the Majority of them were heavily damaged.

There was a max rush to get the aircraft back on their feet before the next Soviet Satellite fly over.

We learned a whole lot about tieing down aircraft from that storm.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-05-20-mn-293-story.html

 

Edited February 16, 2022 by A64Pilot

[steingar]

Of course the Army leaves multimillion dollar aircraft just sitting outside.

[pilot_jb]

Simply this to tie the yokes together.  Simple, cheap, and very effective.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GN9MJRR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Edited February 16, 2022 by pilot_jb

[ArtVandelay]

Simply this to tie the yokes together.  Simple, cheap, and very effective.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GN9MJRR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A short piece of rope is cheaper and just as effective.

[ZuluZulu]

On 2/8/2022 at 10:05 AM, S.C. said:

I found this site useful.  I have an M20C with Johnson bar and these control locks are great!  Works well with my system and it has a built in reminder.  

https://airplanethings.com/#locks

 

Hope this helps

I like this one too.

[cliffy]

Didn't the Army just leave a billion $$$ worth of equipment sitting the desert?  :-)

[steingar]

13 hours ago, cliffy said:

Didn't the Army just leave a billion $$$ worth of equipment sitting the desert?  :-)

Armies often do that when the other guys win.

[A64Pilot]

1. the other guys didn’t win, anymore than they did in Vietnam, Military didn’t choose either, Politicians sent them, and apparently never heard of a “tar baby” 

2. The Politicians made an Executive decision, nothing to do with the Military, Military follows orders, ALL levels of the Military.

The Aircraft sitting outside at Ft Hood weren’t just sitting there, they were tied down with 6ea, 12,000 lb cargo straps, after the storm we used 5/16” transport chains. 18,800 breaking strength each, times 6.

In Germany, the Army put trucks under shelter, but left aircraft outside, go figure.

 

[cliffy]

12 hours ago, steingar said:

Armies often do that when the other guys win.

Good point!

[cliffy]

On 2/16/2022 at 12:12 PM, ZuluZulu said:

I like this one too.

That actually looks real good

[FlyingDude]

Can someone please help me understand what's wrong with locking the controls with the seatbelt?  Why are all these new tools and methods being devised?  Thanks in advance.

[Hank]

21 minutes ago, FlyingDude said:

Can someone please help me understand what's wrong with locking the controls with the seatbelt?  Why are all these new tools and methods being devised?  Thanks in advance.

It's awkward to do, squatting on the wing and sliding the right seat around. And some people don't like the down-yoke force it generates. 

I usually do nothing. When needed, I just bungee the yokes together.

[Derrickearly]

2 minutes ago, Hank said:

It's awkward to do, squatting on the wing and sliding the right seat around. And some people don't like the down-yoke force it generates. 

I usually do nothing. When needed, I just bungee the yokes together.

Sitting in the right seat and securing the left seat belt on the yoke is pretty comfortable.

[A64Pilot]

31 minutes ago, FlyingDude said:

Can someone please help me understand what's wrong with locking the controls with the seatbelt?  Why are all these new tools and methods being devised?  Thanks in advance.

They aren’t new, gust locks are older than I am by a wide margin, my guess would be the 20’s, 100 years ago. But that’s a guess.

A couple of reasons why the seatbelt method may be undesirable in high winds

The whole control system is loaded, meaning any forces from the wind are transmitted through the whole system up to the belt of course, where is the weakest link? 

Some Mooney’s I believe are subject to control tube cracking? What causes cracks? Fatigue? What causes fatigue?

Secondly for aircraft left outside over long periods of time, the wind is blowing those controls back and forth as of course there is play in the system, over time this continuous movement wears the system, only when there is significant wind of course, and fatigues the system.  

You of course are free to choose, personally I don’t bother with them unless I’m tied down outside with high winds forecasted, which is almost never, but rarely I have to travel where it’s an issue, but then I’m lucky enough to have a hangar so I’m only outside if or when we travel.

I only use them when I’m tieing down being way more meticulous than I normally am, using my ropes and not the provided ones etc.

[cliffy]

Control tube cracking usually comes from seized external ball joints due to lack of lubrication

I've found several aileron tubes totally frozen stiff because of lack of lube. 

Every few months I spray all my exposed control joints with 100% silicone spray lube and make sure that they will move a little with finger pressure by rotating them.